txbumper57
Enlightened Member
Very Nice Drew, Nothing like a spruce and rosewood Guild Dread. Quite possibly the best sound ever.:friendly_wink:
So I did it again
- Thread starter drew
- Start date
Surprisingly the D4HG has the loudest and probably the fullest sound of the three. The D25 has amazing mid-range, the D50 is sweet and warm and a very balanced sound but the D4 has the loudest, probably due to the bowled back, and fullest sound with punchy lows and bell highs. It beats out all my acoustics including a Martin GCPA4, D16RGT a Taylor 410, 314ce, 110 (which is actually pretty close to the D4) Gibson 1959 LG2, and 1963 LG1 and my D25 and D50ce.
Westerly Wood
Venerated Member
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Nice D4 Drew. There is one local here, still on CL, not an HG, an earlier model. '93 I think. Dude asking 349. I should just buy it just cause
For that price I would jump on it! If it sounds half as good as mine I'd pay double that!
adorshki
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Despite the rather negative generalizing postings about the Guild D4HG on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, probably by some youngsters who weren't even there when Guild was still an independent guitar company, I have only positive things to say about the Guild D4HG.
I bought one used from Harrie Boetzkes back in 1999/2000, and it is a really nice solid mahogany guitar. I remember looking it up in one of Gruhn's books in a book store (since there was only one thing in the book I wanted to know), and I found out that the production of the HG (high gloss) version was very short-lived. If I remember it well mine appeard to be from 1992, so Fender had NOTHING to do with my axe (which is a good thing IMHO, because they never built a decent acoustic in their entire company history).
Anyway, I had been collecting catalogs and pricelists from all kinds of guitar brands as a student in the 1983s and some more years in the 1990s it appeared that I still had the pricelist of the 'expensive' acoustics from my local music shop, which was Schreeven in Nijmegen.
On that pricelist there was a 300 guilders price difference between the regular satin finish and the High Gloss.
The D4GH was a ƒ2495,- guitar in 1992, which was an AWFULL lot of money in those days.
It was more expensive than a Fender American Standard Strat, which had a going price of ƒ1710,-.
This all goes to show that the D4HG
I bought one used from Harrie Boetzkes back in 1999/2000, and it is a really nice solid mahogany guitar. I remember looking it up in one of Gruhn's books in a book store (since there was only one thing in the book I wanted to know), and I found out that the production of the HG (high gloss) version was very short-lived. If I remember it well mine appeard to be from 1992, so Fender had NOTHING to do with my axe (which is a good thing IMHO, because they never built a decent acoustic in their entire company history).
Anyway, I had been collecting catalogs and pricelists from all kinds of guitar brands as a student in the 1983s and some more years in the 1990s it appeared that I still had the pricelist of the 'expensive' acoustics from my local music shop, which was Schreeven in Nijmegen.
On that pricelist there was a 300 guilders price difference between the regular satin finish and the High Gloss.
The D4GH was a ƒ2495,- guitar in 1992, which was an AWFULL lot of money in those days.
It was more expensive than a Fender American Standard Strat, which had a going price of ƒ1710,-.
This all goes to show that the D4HG
- Joined
- May 30, 2017
- Messages
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- 0
D4HG (High Gloss) were rare and far more expensive than satin D4 guitars
Despite the rather negative generalizing postings about the Guild D4HG on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, probably by some youngsters who weren't even there when Guild was still an independent guitar company, I have only positive things to say about the Guild D4HG.
I bought one used from Harrie Boetzkes back in 1999/2000, and it is a really nice solid mahogany guitar, for strumming as well as for fingerpicking. I remember looking it up in one of Gruhn's books in a book store (since there was only one thing in the book I wanted to know), and I found out that the production of the HG (high gloss) version was very short-lived. If I remember it well mine appeard to be from 1992, so Fender had NOTHING to do with my axe (which is a good thing IMHO, because they never built a decent acoustic in their entire company history).
Anyway, I had been collecting catalogs and pricelists from all kinds of guitar brands as a student in the 1983s and some more years in the 1990s it appeared that I still had the pricelist of the 'expensive' acoustics from my local music shop, which was Schreeven in Nijmegen.
On that pricelist there was a 300 guilders price difference between the regular satin finish and the High Gloss.
The D4GH was a ƒ2495,- guitar in 1992, which was an AWFULL lot of money in those days.
It was far more expensive than a Fender American Standard Stratocaster, which had a going price of ƒ1710,-.
This all goes to show that the D4HG was and IS a serious USA vintage acoustic and a treasure for life, if you treat her well.
Ginger a.k.a. Gemberbier
Despite the rather negative generalizing postings about the Guild D4HG on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, probably by some youngsters who weren't even there when Guild was still an independent guitar company, I have only positive things to say about the Guild D4HG.
I bought one used from Harrie Boetzkes back in 1999/2000, and it is a really nice solid mahogany guitar, for strumming as well as for fingerpicking. I remember looking it up in one of Gruhn's books in a book store (since there was only one thing in the book I wanted to know), and I found out that the production of the HG (high gloss) version was very short-lived. If I remember it well mine appeard to be from 1992, so Fender had NOTHING to do with my axe (which is a good thing IMHO, because they never built a decent acoustic in their entire company history).
Anyway, I had been collecting catalogs and pricelists from all kinds of guitar brands as a student in the 1983s and some more years in the 1990s it appeared that I still had the pricelist of the 'expensive' acoustics from my local music shop, which was Schreeven in Nijmegen.
On that pricelist there was a 300 guilders price difference between the regular satin finish and the High Gloss.
The D4GH was a ƒ2495,- guitar in 1992, which was an AWFULL lot of money in those days.
It was far more expensive than a Fender American Standard Stratocaster, which had a going price of ƒ1710,-.
This all goes to show that the D4HG was and IS a serious USA vintage acoustic and a treasure for life, if you treat her well.
Ginger a.k.a. Gemberbier
- Joined
- May 30, 2017
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
ride:- Joined
- May 30, 2017
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
Despite the rather negative generalizing postings about the Guild D4HG on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, probably by some youngsters who weren't even there when Guild was still an independent guitar company, I have only positive things to say about the Guild D4HG.
I bought one used from Harrie Boetzkes back in 1999/2000, and it is a really nice solid mahogany guitar, for strumming as well as for fingerpicking. I remember looking it up in one of Gruhn's books in a book store (since there was only one thing in the book I wanted to know), and I found out that the production of the HG (high gloss) version was very short-lived. If I remember it well mine appeard to be from 1992, so Fender had NOTHING to do with my axe (which is a good thing IMHO, because they never built a decent acoustic in their entire company history).
Anyway, I had been collecting catalogs and pricelists from all kinds of guitar brands as a student in the 1983s and some more years in the 1990s it appeared that I still had the pricelist of the 'expensive' acoustics from my local music shop, which was Schreeven in Nijmegen.
On that pricelist there was a 300 guilders price difference between the regular satin finish and the High Gloss.
The D4GH was a ƒ2495,- guitar in 1992, which was an AWFULL lot of money in those days.
It was far more expensive than a Fender American Standard Stratocaster, which had a going price of ƒ1710,-.
This all goes to show that the D4HG was and IS a serious USA vintage acoustic and a treasure for life, if you treat her well.
Ginger a.k.a. Gemberbier
I bought one used from Harrie Boetzkes back in 1999/2000, and it is a really nice solid mahogany guitar, for strumming as well as for fingerpicking. I remember looking it up in one of Gruhn's books in a book store (since there was only one thing in the book I wanted to know), and I found out that the production of the HG (high gloss) version was very short-lived. If I remember it well mine appeard to be from 1992, so Fender had NOTHING to do with my axe (which is a good thing IMHO, because they never built a decent acoustic in their entire company history).
Anyway, I had been collecting catalogs and pricelists from all kinds of guitar brands as a student in the 1983s and some more years in the 1990s it appeared that I still had the pricelist of the 'expensive' acoustics from my local music shop, which was Schreeven in Nijmegen.
On that pricelist there was a 300 guilders price difference between the regular satin finish and the High Gloss.
The D4GH was a ƒ2495,- guitar in 1992, which was an AWFULL lot of money in those days.
It was far more expensive than a Fender American Standard Stratocaster, which had a going price of ƒ1710,-.
This all goes to show that the D4HG was and IS a serious USA vintage acoustic and a treasure for life, if you treat her well.
Ginger a.k.a. Gemberbier
adorshki
Reverential Member
Hi Ginger Welcome aboard,
Actually Guild introduced a "G" version of it in the spring '97 catalog and it was still listed on the '01 price list, last year of Westerly production. I believe the "HG" was simply an earlier designation but it might have been a slightly different finishing technique than the "G".
The "G" was described as being lacquer applied over a hand-rubbed finish so still would have had some economy of labor.
If Gruhn had only the "HG" model to refer to at the time of publication then the production numbers would naturally appear to be much lower than they actually are, but I honestly don't know what the ratio of satin (HR) to Gloss production was.
I suspect you may have fallen victim to the pernicious internet myth that Fender ruined Guild.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
We have a member ("Hideglue", IIRC) who worked at Westerly when Fender took over and he stated that Guild's QC reached a zenith under Fender.
He took pains to explain he didn't mean the guitars were actually better, but he described that Fender instituted a checklist system to ensure that no QC steps were overlooked during production. This resulted in a higher level of overall production quality consistency.
There are quite a few members here who believe that the late Westerly period under Fender saw some of the finest Guilds ever built, but in truth even Corona ('02-'04) and Tacoma ('05-'08) have their fans, and there's another contingent that believe New Hartford products ('09-'14) were the apex of Guild's achievement.
All under Fender's ownership and financial support and distribution channels.
OK in fairness I have to agree that Fender's poor reputation in acoustic guitars built under their own name, with some exceptions, is fairly well deserved.
But they deserve credit for recognizing the opportunity to acquire a truly quality domestic maker and allowing them a large degree of independance in their manufacturing.
They did make some decisions that had a negative influence on the brand image during the mid '00's, but without Fender it's pretty certain the brand would not have survived as long as it has.
So "Fender bashing" goes in and out of style here but you should get both sides of the story.
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Rich Cohen
Senior Member
DAAAMM! :love_heart:
adorshki
Reverential Member
She shore is purty!
adorshki
Reverential Member
You guys do realize this is a 2-year old thread revived by a new member, right?
:friendly_wink: